U.S. Pat. No. 1,837,257, by R. Eames, issued Dec. 22, 1931, disclosed a V-shaped fruit jar cap remover.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,841,270, by W. E. Aeschbach et al, issued Jan. 12, 1932, disclosed a V-shaped decapping tool carrying a sliding element, having humps arranged to center a screw-cap between them; the sliding element being arranged to carry the screw-cap into biting engagement with the gripping element; such biting engagement serving to hold the cap against rotation, whereupon the container is twisted to unscrew it from the cap.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,431,550, by H. H. Gary, issued Nov. 25, 1947, disclosed a screw top jar wrench including a serrated pivoted arm as part of a gripping jaw, having a slot at the pivot slanted for a better grip.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,498,185 by C. L. Shobe, issued Feb. 21, 1950, disclosed a screw top jar wrench including a serrated pivoted arm as part of a gripping jaw, having a slot at the pivot slanted for a better grip.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,515,655, by M. S. Kormuth, issued Jul. 18, 1950, disclosed a V-shaped wall-supported jar cap wrench.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,630,031, by J. J. Panik, issued Mar. 3, 1953, disclosed a jar cover wrench with pivoted jaws.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,671,632, by H. C. Wilson, issued Mar. 9, 1954, disclosed a V-shaped surface-mounted screw cap remover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,632, by J. M. Hogan et al, issued Apr. 25, 1978, for a screw cap opener for jars and the like having screw caps or lids thereon consisting of a plastic holder preferably made of PVC-type material in various colors. Two metal blades are mounted in the plastic support holder at an angle to each other to form a V-shaped gripping structure. One of the blades has a smooth edge while the second blade edge has sawteeth formed therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,127, by A. J. Russo, issued May 15, 1979, disclosed an opener for screw top container having a base adapted to be secured to a wall, one or more notches in the front face of the base and an arm having at one end a jaw with a gripping surface, and at the other end a pivot, the arm being adjustable to one of a number of positions relative to the base to accommodate a variety of bottle cap sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,101, by D. H. Wolford et al, issued Oct. 13, 1992, disclosed a combination jar or bottle cap remover and bag opener, consisting essentially of two side bars and a base. One side bar contains a gripping blade for removing caps and the other side bar contains a bag opening device.
Despite this abundance of prior-art proposal, the most popular jar and bottle top remover is the familiar under-the-kitchen-cabinet device that has serrated inside opposite a first inside edge for handling jaw tops and a closer second inside edge for handling smaller bottle tops; such first and second inside edges being stepped relative to each other.
A newer version has stepped curved inside ledges and a serrated cylindrical member inside such ledges. Bottle and jar tops are received between such cylindrical member and either of the curved ledges.